International students - time to examine motives

I've advocated in previous posts that the competition for international student enrollment has intensified. Now in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, every institution and country that has hosted international students and used them to supplement budget shortfalls resulting from declining government support and slipping demographics is scrambling.

With a 21% decline in international student visas and overall declining international enrollment in the U.S., the path forward will have to include reexamining why institutions and countries are interested in the first place - is it only the economic benefit or does it include the educational value that international students represent? The Council on Foreign Relations provided a podcast summarizing the rationale for "Why we need international students."

Institutions also need to consider the impact that COVID-19 had on international students and move quickly to help them. Issues include addressing the complications for international students who were stranded when the COVID-19 travel restrictions were imposed, the loss of part-time jobs and internships, payment of stipends to graduate students, and the dashing of plans for continued graduate school enrollment or OPT. The bottom line is the "need to create or expand networks of social support... in addition to offering free housing, meals and health care for students who are stuck."

Colleges and universities need to carefully examine how international students apply and gain admission. The unfortunate outcome of education being highly prized is that prospective international students can be exploited by schemes to help them gain admission to the most desirable institutions. Elite institutions have been embarrassed and some of the brokers are now paying the price for encouraging fraudulent applications, as confirmed in the federal prosecution of two providers in southern California.

Months after the flurry of concern related to Trump administration policy interventions and then the pandemic, some campuses seem to have doubled down to pursue prospective students. Two University of California system campus - Irving and Riverside - have been criticized for schemes designed to primarily attract wealthy Chinese students